Andrew Sibley

Andrew John Sibley (9 July 1933 – 3 September 2015) was an English-born Australian artist. Sibley has been the subject of three books and is commonly listed in histories and encyclopedias of Australian art as a significant figurative painter of the mid and late 20th century.

Sibley was born in Adisham, Kent, England, the first child to John Percival and Marguerite Joan Sibley (née Taylor). With his family home bombed in the London Blitz, Sibley was relocated to Sittingbourne, Kent, then moving to Northfleet, Kent. In 1944 Sibley was awarded a scholarship at Gravesend School of Art, where he studied with fellow students including English artist Peter Blake.

In 1948, with his parents and two brothers, Sibley emigrated to Australia, where they lived and worked on an orchard in the rural town of Stanthorpe, Queensland. He left the farm in 1951 to undertake National Service Training with the Royal Australian Navy, after which he spent a short time living and working in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

After meeting his future wife Irena Sibley (née Pauliukonis) in Brisbane in 1967, Sibley followed her to Sydney, where they were married in 1968. The Sibleys moved to Victoria, where he lived and worked until his death on 3 September 2015 at the age of 82.

From his early success in the 1960s Andrew Sibley consistently exhibited throughout Australia and internationally. His work is represented in all major national, state and regional collections in Australia as well as private collections in Australia, Europe, Asia and the United States. Over his 58-year career as an artist, Sibley achieved strong commercial and critical success as well as recognition as a finalist or being awarded numerous major art prizes.

Sibley commenced his formal painting career in Brisbane during the latter half of the 1950s alongside notable artists such as Roy Churcher, Jon Molvig and Ian Fairweather, Brian Johnston, Charles Blackman and Clifton Pugh. In 1960 Sibley had his first solo exhibition at Rowes Arcade Gallery. In 1962 Sibley received the Transfield Art Prize (Australia's largest) with his painting The Bathers. He subsequently had solo exhibitions at Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, and South Yarra Galleries, Melbourne and at Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, alongside artists of that time including Jon Molvig, Robert Dickerson and Leonard French.

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